o Two children killed in Chimbel compound wall collapse. Sayeed Sikandar Makandar (7) and Saba Sikandar Makandar (3) died on the spot when a compound wall around a public works department water tank at Chimbel collapsed on them. (NT)

o Sanjit Rodrigues has replaced N Suryanarayana as the commissioner of the City Corporation of Panjim. (NT)

- Herald titles the story: 'Sanjit back in the saddle'.

o Churchill seeks funds from Delhi for flood, landslide victims. (NT)

o Task force starts cleaning Mobor beach of oily substance. Deputy Director of tourism Pamela Mascarenhas, supervising the operation since Thursday, revealed the government has not decided on a spot to dump the oily substance. It is being wrapped in plastic sheets and stored on a higher level. (NT)

o JOURNALISTS, GOA AND TILAK: Journalists in Goa mark the death anniversary of Bal Gangadar Tilak with two events. A discussion on Aug 1 at 4 pm at Institute Menezes Braganza on 'Journalists Form Public Opinion or Follow Public Opinion?' and a 7 pm felicitation of three senior journalists Vinayak Naik (editor, Goa Today), Benedict Coutinho (ex-PTI) and Valentino Fernandes (ex-Gomantak Times) at the Goa Union of Journalists office, Shramshakti Bhavan, Patto. Click here to access website. South Goa journos will mark the event with a lecture titled 'Journalism: Mission or Sensation' by Sunaparant editor Sandesh Prabhudesai at 3.30 pm.

o CALANGUTE PANCHAYAT is to auction two cattle it "detained" for over 10 days at its cattle pound. A male ox, white with brown spots and seized opposite the Baga temple. An off-white cow seized at Umtavaddo, near the football ground says deputy sarpanch Flory Dias.

o CALANGUTE gram sabha (village council) voted to get all persons renting out their flats to register the names of those staying therein "to control anti-social illegal activities, crimes, law and order and general interest of the public" (sic)

Cuncolim Union beat Betalbatim 1-0 to move into the quarters of the 1st Cana-Benaulim inter-village tourney.

Ashwin will take on Reuben D'Costa in the finals of the all-Goa playzone snooker championships, on Sunday.

Rising Club of Sanvorcotto will take on Shantadurga SC Panzorconi, in an all-Cuncolim finals of the Cuncolim Balli Ambaulim football on Sunday. (NT)

SMASH A COCONUT, WIN A PRIZE: Agasaim will host the 35th annual all-Goa traditional coconut breaking contenst on the feast of St Lawrence, Aug 10 at Dugrem grounds at 2.30 pm, followed by a volleyball match, and six-a-side tug-of-war.

GINs, OR GOANS IN THE NETHERLANDS: Rene Barreto <goanint@yahoo.co.uk> who's behind the World Goa Day plan has snowballed a lot networking among Goans at this time of the year, as the day approaches (mostly marked around August 20,though on differing days too in some locations). Here's a link from him that puts us in touch with Goans in the Netherlands -- Click here. You can write to them at gin_holland@bigfoot.com.

- Quote: There are a lot of people from Surinam here. They look like Goans which made it difficult to approach every one who resembled a Goan. Internet came along. Goans got connected to the cyber world.

- Then out of the blue came Miss Fredrica Cortez. Being all alone she made it her hobby to seek and unite the Goans in the Netherlands. She organized the first picnic in 1999. It was a success. The second picnic was held on the 15th of July. It drew an even larger crowd than the first. We all had a nice time.

- This site is dedicated to the Goans in the Netherlands. As events take place and photos come along they will be available to be viewed here. We are in the process of compiling a database of all the Goans here and would like if you, the Goans in the Netherlands, e-mail us and give us your particulars. Just simple details like your names and telephone numbers, your children's names and age, hobbies and e-mail address. The purpose of this information is so that we can leave a network for our children.

BONDERAM FESTIVAL... IN CANADA: The Divar Association of Canada will celebrate its Bonderam Festival and World Goa Day on August 27, 2005 at Streetsville Kinsmen Club, Mississauga. High mass will be celebrated by Fr Cecil Noronha, former principal of Don Bosco School in Panjim. Bonderam parade to the tune of Viva Bonderam, composed and sung by Andrew Desa. It will end with flag bearers dancing to the tune of the mando 'Dahlia'. Dinner follows, arroz refugado, prawn curry, pork sorpatel, baby lamb curry, barbeque chicken, kofta curry, mixed vegetable and more. The Divar Choral Group will sing the mando 'Aiz Dis Sontossacho' followed by dulpod 'Chinamchi Capddam'. Contact Maurice Coutinho <coutinhomnc@hotmail.com>.

- I always thought that the mainlanders took advantage of the sports visits to check on the Mwarabu "chicks", and to Tanga for serious business with the "Goenkar" girls.

- And for the pretty little "things" checking on the Mainland hunks, I am sure they had a surplus to grapple with in addition to all the duty-free stuff. Why would they be interested in mainlanders?

- As for the Union, the losers were the people of Zanzibar, and the gainers were the Mainland government and the people of the Mainland.

- Unfortunately as a journalist with the "Daily News", I could never express my objective views, otherwise I would have landed in the same dilemma as many anti-union critics. For during the oil crisis, it was the foreign exchange that Zanzibar earned from the sale of cloves that helped pay for imported gasoline.

- Mainlanders flocked to Zanzibar to purchase British products (Colgate toothpaste, Biscuits (cookies, clothes) and imported beer at Bwawani Hotel. With the launching of Air Tanzania flights to Oman and Dubai in the early 'eighties, the Mainlanders benefited again as they were purchasing imported goods from Zanzibar --not available on the Mainland. Most Zanzibaris didn’t have the high purchasing power as the Mainlanders.

- The old English adage states "politics is a dirty game"; Not so says former Zambian President- Kenneth Kaunda who emphasises that it’s the politicians who make it a "dirty game". This is very true in the case of the Union. The elections are to be held later this year and the outcome will be interesting. History will only tell.

XAVIER'S INITIATIVE ON EMAIL ADDRESSES: This is an idea that just might catch on. The other day, at the launch of the Xavier's Open Source Club, Principal Newman Fernandes spoke about wanting to get every single college student an email address.

- With so many email address services going around (anyone out there wanting a 2GB free Gmail account?) it's not very difficult to get an email address. Using it effectively and efficiently, keeping it in use, and realising its true worth. That is the tough part.

- But the college is also aware of this aspect, and Principal Newman was talking about Rene Barreto's Goanet-supported initiative to have an "email address for every Goan". St Xavier's also wants its students to experiment with Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS). Dr Albert Gouveia, head of IT at the National Institute of Oceanography and an alumni of the prestigious IIT Bombay, was the keynote speaker at the launch of the club. Gouveia was an alumni of Xavier's from the 1968-1970 batch.

- "Our college has a principle of offering students all they way. We have 1850 students and 40 clubs. We have a Rainwater Harvesting Club, a music club, an e-centre where the class notes which teachers used to dictate are shared via the intranet. We also have a Centre for Traditional Knowledge," said Fernandes.

WITH LOVE FROM SPAIN: Eduardo Serrano Belenguer <edserbe@teleco.upv.es> a Spaniard who was a volunteer with the Goa Schools Computers Project has presented a report on his stint as a volunteer in Goa. He says: "My final report has been circulating around the university.... I am really glad you selected Tomas (another Spaniard as the next) volunteer, I know he'll give his best and of course I'll have a friend to talk and share our experiences in Goa and India from now on, thank you very much! I've also given him some advice, thought not much, since I believe it is much better when you discover things by yourself, I am sure he'll get a good start!" Belenguer points to some interesting IT in education projects such as http://www.edubuntu.org/, a specific education 'distro' (distribution). Says he: "I know it is still not ready, but soon it will be. I am using Ubuntu in my laptop; it works great, easy to use, install software and update. Just an idea! Check out the Knowledge Initiatives Trust (Goa) mailing list, expats and locals promoting IT in education.

LINKING UP WITH ALUMNI: Peter Fernandes <peterjf@emirates.net.ae> says a 'hi from Dubai' and tells Goanet News Bytes: "Thanks a lot for the message posted on the Goanet News Bytes (about alumni from St Xavier's going back to the 'sixties). I was able to visit the site and go thru the list of my classmates in 65-66. Also updated my info on the site. I wish all the other had done similarly so that I could contact some of them. Keep up the good work."

CHOWGULE COLLEGE, MARGAO: Any Chowgule College alumni out there? Check the college website. Incidentally, this year, the college announced that it was offering on-line admissions.

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CARMO DCRUZ <cadcruz@msn.com> ON GOAN FOOD, following up on a recent article by Ruth from New Zealand: "We did enter our Sorpotel (minus the liver) in the chilli cook-off competitions and won 1st place hands down in the "3-alarm Chilli" category -- for two years in a row in Austin, Tx. However our Goan Sorpotel was not very successful in winning the Sorpotel cook-off competitions in the early days -- until Sandra came on the scene in 1986. We had entries from the Pakistani Goans, the Mangaloreans, the East Indians, the Bardez Goans, the Ilhas Goans and the Salcete Goans. We used our fiery Texas Chilli Cook-off scale (1-alarm, 2-alarm, 3-alarm) to estimate the degree of pungency..."

JOSE COLACO <colaco1@yahoo.com> ADDS THESE comments as a follow-up to the food article, which sparked off a sorpotel debate:

If you have traveled and dined (like I was fortunate enough to) in different parts of Goa, the amount of spice varies. The one from Ilhas (esp Panjim) is the closest to Sarrabulho i.e. equally tasteless (:-) unless the 'mesta' is from Salcete

If you go North to Bardez, the Sorpotel is reasonable (or I have to say so .....or else the "de Souzas" i.e my in laws would disown me. (:-)

Salcete is the place for the zestiest Sorpotel - but then, I'd be biased esp as I don't care much for Sorpotel. Having said that my sister in law in Sydney conjures the best Sorpotel "ever". -- JC

REMEMBERING POET PHILIP FURTADO OF PILERNE: Carmo Dcruz <cdcruz@fit.edu> adds: Hi Ruth, Reading your article on Goanet Reader (July 29) "What it means to be Goan Of Goan Food and Song" was a delicious and mouth-watering experience. However, I must take exception to some parts of the statement, 'The following anonymous poem does more to illustrate the place of sorpotel in the connections of Goans to ‘home’'. Firstly, it is not anonymous -- having been penned by Philip Furtado (Ref: George Menezes: Goan Nostalgia. Proceedings of the International Goan Convention, Toronto. Aug 7-21, 1988. pg 45-58). Secondly, it is not a poem but a song!" Goanet Reader regrets the error and places its correction on record.

BOOK RELEASE IN GOA, 'TIN FISH': Tin Fish by Sudeep Chakravarti was released by Penguin and Fundacao Oriente, at Ernesto's (Souza Towers) in Panjim on Saturday, July 30 at 6:30 pm. Sociologist Alito Siquira and writer Margaret Mascarenhas led a discussion on the book, written by a former senior journalist now based in Goa, Sudeep Chakravarti <sudeepc@yahoo.com> The book is a portrayal of growing up in India's elite schools, Mayo College of Ajmer in this case, by an author of Bengali origin.

REMEMBERING A GOAN WRITER AND POET, CONSTANCIO ROQUE MONTEIRO: Eugénio Monteiro <evmonteiro@aese.pt> is a Portugal-based Goan, born in Nagoa de Vernã. He's the son of Constâncio Roque Monteiro, who was a writer and poet, besides being medical doctor. Says Monteiro: "My writings are all in Portuguese language and Spanish one. I'm not used to writing in English.... My cousin is preparing a small biography of my Dad with some of his poems."

AN INTERESTING INITIATIVE, LILA'S IN CARANZALEM: Lila's is an attempt to create space for creativity in Goa each week. On Wednesdays. 11 am to 8 pm. Open to the public at 7/F1 Kamat Plaza, St Inez, Panjim. More details from Apurva Kulkarni at deochas@yahoo.com 9822 158469 This Wednesday at Lila, "War and Peace", the award winning documentary by Anand Patwardhan will be screened at 5 pm. "Filmed over three tumultous years in India, Pakistan, Japan and the USA, beginning with the nuclear tests in the sub-continent in 1998 and culminating in the 2001 attack on America, War and Peace is an epic documentary journey of peace activism in the face of global militarism and war."

INITIATIVES OVERSEAS: Dr Ajit Shirodkar <shirodkars@gmail.com> an alumni of Purdue, says he discussed with molecular biologists and horticulturists --who are holding an international seminar on biotechnology approaches for alleviating malnutrition and human health in January 2006 in Bangalore. Says he: "I'll try to get the visiting group to make a trip to Goa to interact with GU faculty and explore avenues of mutual interest."

- Next week he visits the University of California, Davis Campus and interacting with molecular biologists/pomologists there who are also likely to join in the seminar. "My special interest there would be to meet faculty in viticulture and enology to find out more on fruit wines (mango)," he adds.

APPRECIATING THE SUMMARIES: From Xavier Cota, the Tanzania-returned Salcete-based prominent translator of Konkani writing (to English) says: "Thanks a lot for sending me the Goanet news clippings. Though we are in Goa and do read the papers, it's a quick digest of all three English-language dailies with the occasional clips from the Konkani 'Sunaparant'."

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- ENGLISH TRANSLATION: An opinion article published in Lisbon's daily Publico (Economy section) on July 25. The same author -Prof. Eugenio Viassa Monteiro, a Goan, published in the same supplement, a week earlier, a longer report on India's economic development. (Full text of article on the URL above.)

- Dr.Amit Dias <apdias@sancharnet.in> wrote recently, while mentioning plans to have a Goan doctors website: "We are starting an alumni in GMC and I should be able to get a functional website for GMC ready by end of October."

CATHOLIC GOAN NETWORK CGNet Member List: While there are only a few signed up, the list is expecting more of its 120 to join. Click here to access website.

FROM THE ST XAVIER'S COLLEGE WEBSITE, a narration of how the college came about: The idea of a Catholic college was actually conceived by the veteran educationalist Msgr. Filip Mendonsa, the then principal of St. Joseph High School Arpora. He felt that with dawn of liberation a new climate was created in Goa favourable to the development of university education.

- His idea was welcomed by the archbishop patriarch, D.Jose Viera Alvernaz. Msgr. Gregorio Magno Antao, the chancellor to the patriarch Curia initiated the idea to the Internuncio in New Delhi. A step further was the seeking of the approval to the project from the university of Bombay .It proved to be a Herculean Task before the budding idea could be transformed into a reality.

- With initial difficulties overcome, the archdiocese of Goa embarked on the ambitious scheme of starting the first university college in north Goa. A vacated high school building in Bastora, a few kilometers from Mapusa would serve as a provisional arrangement for a modest beginning.

- Fr. Antonio Ataide Lobo, the then secretary of the diocesan secretariat for schools, played a very vital role and was instrumental in giving a facelift to the old premise .The choice and appointment of the first principal was an onerous task since in those days no diocesan priest satisfied the requirements of the University of Bombay.

- Bishop Rebello approached the provincial of the Jesuits. The latter agreed to place at the disposal of the archdiocese for two years only the services of Fr. Edward D'Cruz and Fr. Fonseca for the post of the principal and vice-principal respectively. The expense of establishing the college was defrayed by the archdiocese of Goa. To begin with only 140 students were enrolled in the year 1963. The courses were FY Arts and Science. In the year 1964, during March, a farewell function was held to Rev D'Cruz and Fr. Fonseca on accomplishment of their two-year mission in Goa. It was then that Fr Nicolau Pereira, the principal-designate, was introduced to the college.

PICS FROM MUMBAI: Ancy S. "Salu Soz" D'Souza Paladka <ancyds@gmail.com> has some photos of the game play of the rains in Mumbai". These pictures are taken from Dadar, Parel, Kurla, Ghatkoper and Vikroli.

- Some of you had asked for details of what the Monsoons are like in Mumbai; here is a personal experience, from last night.

- Good experience: set out with all my three boys yesterday at 15:30 from our factory in Navi Mumbai along our normal route with me driving. Very heavy rains with visibility of maybe one hundred feet. Everyone using their emergency flashing lights. Car behaved beautifully. Tried to turn off along the new and good road to the Wadala Truck Terminal but the entrance to that road and Everad Nagar was under water with no one attempting to cross it and thus give me an idea of how deep the flooding was. So carried on to Sion Junction, at which the policeman informed us that Sion-Matunga "bahut pani bharela" and pointed to the Dharavi road as clear. We took this as this road has just been re-built and the section from Dharavi to Bandra across the Bandra Creek hasnever been known to flood. Got through upto the Dharavi-Bandra turn off junction. OK with some water entering the car. Maybe an inch deep. Then trafic jam.

- 17:00 hours: inched forward with trucks, cars, buses rickshaws, etc all around. But about a hundred meters into the road all traffic came to a dead halt as those at the front end got into deep water and many cars failed. Were abandoned, locked and left as and where they had stopped. Very dark and over-cast sky, but the street lamps came on only at around 19:30. Surprisingly these bright sodium vapour lamps were switched off around midnight! As reported in the TV news by Reliance Energy Ltd for 'safety reasons'.

- Waited till 20:00 and, with no movement, sent off Cletus to Vasai. He spent the night at Andheri Station and finally got home at 16:00 this afternoon. Roque (to Amboli, Andheri). He reached home at 01:00 AM. Kept Claude to help me drive during the night if water level came down; but no movement and, after 22:00, no food.

- Locked all doors, pushed the seats back and decided to go to sleep. Slept quite well. Claude was initially wakeful, but when I awoke at about 3:00 he was dead asleep and I remained wakeful. Got going at 6:00 to find some solution. None. Managed to phone Deepika at 7:00. Roque had told her of our plight and since Claude was with me she was not anxious.

- No food --biscuits, eggs, etc. After some time was offered an evil looking meat preparation with puris or soggy "karak" roti. With difficulty persuaded the guy to sell me only the karak roti and not the meat, since he could not give me mellettes. No water in bottles but plenty all around. Felt somewhat like the Ancient Mariner. Surprisingly, with no intake of water from yesterday morning, I required to "pee" around six times till we left that area. Where did all the water in my body come from?

- Later good Samaritans in the shape of biscuit and toffee manufacturers came around giving all the marooned people and the home-bound crowd sample packets of biscuits and toffees. Did not really starve!!!

- Flooding of Dharavi - Bandra new road appears to be caused by "beautifying" -- the road is paved concrete -- middle divider has plants all now stamped into the soil, as this was the thoroughfare all pedestrian folks used to cross this stretch of floods. Lovely green walls on both sides about five feet high. I could find no storm water outlets. Found a few in what was left of the old retainer wall and unplugged them and watched the flood water shoot through. After the flood water receded, we found that local boys had blocked the new storm water outlets so that they could fish with an old baby-mosquito net and they did catch a few small fish!

- Someone said that with the floods an anaconda appeared –he was afraid that it would capture and squeeze to death some one or other of the people walking along this road.

- Throughout the night and until we left this afternoon, people of all ages from tiny tots with parents, school kids, college students and working people -- men and women -- kept passing. There were no buses nor trains so everyone had to walk home.

- They had been stopped from walking along the railway track from Mahim to Bandra because of the danger of falling into the creek due to the rain and strong winds; and this morning in daylight from my comfortable seat I was able to watch our consciously clean ladies lift their saris not to get them dirtied. The water was in places over two feet deep -- no need for Swedish transparent floors! And while organising the cars, trucks and buses in some sort of order to get them moving when the water level fell around 10:30 today, one enterprising driver asks me,
- "Apna bai-lok bathroom me jana chahiya -- aap madad de sakta?" (They had been in the car from the previous evening like us.)

- Fortunately I had booked the car for servicing tomorrow. So drove straight to Tata Motors, left the car there with windows open, to allow the matting to dry, and a note of what has to be attended to. Will check again tomorrow with Mr Joshi as their office had sent them home at 12:00 as trains and buses were still not running.

- Surprisingly no raising of voices or loss of tempers. Everyone tried to help the next person, even to the extent of giving Claude and myself half cups of tea which had been sent from his owner's home to one of the drivers who had stayed with the car.

Not important at all
Played a role in the past, but not important today
Important only to those of upper castes
Important only to those of lower castes
Continues to play a silent but significant role
Highly relevant to all Goan Catholics

CAN YOU HELP GOANET? GOANET ASKS YOU FOR A PRESENT: In August 2005, Goanet completes its tenth anniversary year. On this occasion, we seek your help to make this amazingly efficient networker of Goa and Goans even more effective. What can you do? Help us to grow --recommend Goanet News Bytes or Goanet-Digest to your family and friends. Forward them a copy of this free-of-charge news summary and networking service. Send them a copy of Goanet Digest. Point them to http://www.goanet.org. Anyone can signup for the Goanet News Bytes service at http://newsfromgoa.swiki.net. If you wish, you can also support Goanet's financially, by using Paypal to hand in a donation at http://www.goanet.org. Donations received go into building Goanet; volunteers do not get paid for their services.

NOTE FROM BONI DIAS: "I am the Producer of Good Morning Lord, an inspiration and devotional music program on FM Rainbow, Goa. I am in the process of planning a Konkani programme on the radio and streaming the same on Internet radio for the Goans across the globe. Can you help me by sending me the contact person, name and email addresses of the different Goan associations across the world so I can involve them to in this project that can showcase Goan talent? I look forward to any help possible, even if it is a single email address. Boromor (Boni) Dias boromor@technologicgrp.com.

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A QUERY FROM A SMALL ENTREPRENEUR: "Louis Vaz" <loumel@softhome.net> writes in to ask, "I'm looking for a manufacturer of the thin transparent plastic trays that are commonly used inside biscuit and cake packages (Britannia, Parle's Mongini's etc. As per info I've gathered, they're only made in Mumbai, Hubli and Gujarat by a process called vacuum forming. Could any Mumbaikars get me the phone number or email address of any such mfg. units in Mumbai? There's not a single manufacturer in Goa. Tried almost all the GIDC industrial estates and made lots of enquires here. In case someone thinks of setting up such a unit do contact me for a running order. Loumel's Cottage Crafts, is at http://loumels.swiki.net

MANGALORE 'HOLOCAUST': C Mathias <mnchkl@yahoo.com> is looking out for information about the "Mangalore holocaust".

We need your help to promote Goanet, a volunteer-driven network. To submit news, events and event schedules or to share information with fellow Goans across the globe, send a short mail to fred@goanet.org. Discuss the news. Send your views to goanet@goanet.org

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